A Switch-Activated Educational Toy (SAET)

A Switch-Activated Educational Toy (SAET)

A Switch-Activated Educational Toy (SAET)

Designer: Kenneth Langat

Client: Kennedy Day School at Franciscan Hospital for Children

Abstract

The goal of the project is to design a switch activated toy to be used in a classroom as a learning tool, which is an interactive toy that appeals to multiple senses of students with a variety of physical and cognitive disabilities, so as to see how interactive toys could help these students open up to their surroundings and stimulate imagination. Switch activated toys are great motivators for children because they encourage development of motor, language, cognitive, visual, and social skills. It also captures their attention and increases their ability to focus and improve their interaction and social skills. The project is to design a vibrating sound-generating device in a toy that plays recorded messages and sounds and also interacts vocally and also physically with the children. A microcontroller controls the vibrating motor and also manages the record and playback feature. The cause and effect aspect of the toy teaches them basic rules and gives them a strategy for controlling their world. Thus the toy makes their lives better and achieves its goal of building confidence and independent play skills.